Chad Smith, Drummer Live - London International Music Show, ExCel, London, 14 June 2008
UPDATE: I've now posted a clip of Chad yelling at the security guard. Enjoy!
ORIGINAL POST:
This wasn't exactly a gig per se but when I found out that Chad Smith (drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers for those not familiar with Chad) would be headlining Saturday's Drummer Live at the London International Music Show (be warned, this is one of the shittiest websites to navigate), well, Matt and I quite simply had to go! And at £14 a ticket this was a no brainer!
The show itself was a musician's dream - guitars, drums, amps, workshops. Sadly, the only musical training I have is 3 months' worth of piano lessons in my youth but I really enjoyed it as a music fan, soaking up the atmosphere and appreciating the musician's plight. Anyway, Matt and I were checking out some Chad Smith drumming DVDs at a stall selling DVDs, books, guitar tabs etc and for some reason I decided to peek around the corner and literally, less than 10 metres away from us, was Chad himself in the middle of an autograph signing session! I almost had a heart attack (imagine if it had been John Frusciante...)
I looked around and the queue was massive! After snapping a few shots, Matt and I queued up as we just had to meet the legend!! We grabbed a few freebie posters for Chad to sign, we joined the queue all the way back at the end. We found ourselves queueing up with this very bitter, older, didn't quite make the big time drummer and his young teenage son. Oh, he told us the usual stories, how he'd been coming to the London International Music Show for years, how it's changed and gotten too big, how he'd been drumming since he was 10. Inevitably, the topic turned to Chad and other famous drummers and of course, he had his opinions (what was it Dirty Harry said? "Opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one"). Boy did he have his opinions. "Chad Smith isn't the greatest, he's just the most popular, he doesn't have the technical skills that Ian Paice* has, Ian blows him out of the water every time. Even Keith Moon** wasn't as great as people think he was...". Of course, we had to ask him who his favourite drummer was and we expected him to say John Bonham*** but no, not even John (and definitely not John's son Jason) made the cut. Bitter Drummer Man said he had seen God play drums and when we asked who it was, he proceeded to mention some completely unknown drummer (probably himself, we never asked him his name). His son looked quite bored by all the stories which he's probably heard a 100 times before. Despite not rating Chad Smith very highly as a drummer, turns out he'd queued up to meet Chad on 2 previous occasions, was eager to meet him again (evident when he bit the head off management who came round saying Chad would only be signing for the next 30 mins or so as he had to get ready) and he was carrying drum paraphernalia for signing which were blatantly not his son's.
Chad was due to go onstage at 4.30pm. Around 3.45pm, management comes round again holding up Chad's DVD saying that if anyone buys or has bought a DVD they can go to the front of the queue. The DVD costs £24.99. Needless to say, everyone told him to fuck off (myself included). Chad, oblivious to all of this, was happily signing anything and everything, so he didn't give a shit if we bought his DVDs (he certainly doesn't need the money). I'd say Matt and I were about 20 people away from Chad when rather reluctantly Chad had to apologise to everyone that he had to leave because he had to get ready. Of course, Matt and I broke free from the queue to try and get a, well, something, anything! Matt, the cheeky bastard, managed to run up to Chad and shook his hand and said something totally gay like "Nice to Meet you Chad you're a legend". I was not so fortunate as Chad was quickly whisked away by management.
We then went to queue up to get into the hall where Drummer Live was taking place. The people who had gotten into the hall earlier when other drummers were having their showcases in order to secure front row seats for Chad were all kicked out (haha) and forced to rejoin the queue. Matt and I were close to the front of the queue and of course, for some reason, Bitter Drummer Man and his Moody Teenage Son were right next to us again. I ignored him and left Matt to entertain his rants.
We finally got into the hall and got seats about 6 rows away from the stage (by this point we'd successfully lost Bitter Drummer Man and Son). Security, Management, Wankers, whatever you want to call them, were being absolute tossers and barking orders like Nazis. I fucking hate this day and age of orderly queueing and fire safety hazards!
Anyway Chad came on at 4.30 on the dot and one of the first thing he does is tells everyone to move their chairs closer to the front which everyone eagerly did, much to security's horror hahaha
I could tell from seeing Red Hot Chilli Peppers' stuff that Chad's a funny guy (I knew there was a reason why he's Will Farrell's doppelgänger!) and he proved it over and over during the showcase.
Chad drummed to 3 Chili tracks off the Stadium Arcadium album (Charlie, Readymade and So Much I) and did one freestyle drumming. Even though it was obvious it was already planned what he would do, he still indulged the crowd by asking us what we wanted to hear (instinctively I shouted "Give It Away"). Someone shouted "Dani California", to which Chad responded that he was sick of it. Then someone shouted "Under The Bridge" and Chad went "I'm even sicker of that!".
The atmosphere was great. There was an incident when once again, security tried to clear a path between the crowd for whatever dumb ass reason security does the things it does and Chad was like "Hey asshole, you're disrupting my show!", jumped off the stage and had a few words with the security guy. Of course, everyone was like "Go Chad!". Seriously, I really hate the draconian treatment we're always subjected to in this day and age when attending concerts and events like these. It can make the whole concert-going experience feel really rigorous at times so I'm glad Chad gave this guy a mouthful (of course, in fairness, the guy was just doing his job but he was being a twat about it).
At one point Chad jokingly asked the crowd "You guys all know who the most important member of the band is don't you?" and I yelled out "John!" much to Matt's horror. Haha. It was really great to see Chad up there handling his own really well instead of hiding behind the drum kit. He did remark that he felt a bit like an animal in a zoo as everyone hung on every single word he said.
Anyway, I don't care what Bitter Drum Man said, Chad is a phenomenal drummer. I was disappointed that there wasn't a Q&A session as I really wanted to ask Chad his version of his audition for the Red Hot Chili Peppers (I've already read Anthony's take and seen John's effin' hilarious rendition here - see from 2:15, hilarious stuff!) and it would have been great to hear it from the horse's mouth. Still, it was a great event.
After it ended, we walked around a bit and came across another signing session, this time with Joe Fuckin' Satriani!
Joe looked really young! The queue was long so we decided to give it a miss. We'd already seen one legend.
*Drummer for Deep Purple (alive and drumming)
**Drummer for The Who (deceased)
***Drummer for Led Zep (deceased)
posted by Lyn @ 11:29 pm
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